'Guide to Style's Tim Gunn, Gretta Monahan 'excited' to work together

By John Bracchitta, 09/22/2008

Fashion guru Tim Gunn thinks that he has found his perfect match in a co-host for the second season of Tim Gunn's Guide to Style.

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During a conference call with reporters last Wednesday, Gunn credited many of Guide to Style's second season changes to fashion expert and personal stylist Gretta Monahan's replacement of departed first-season co-host Veronica Webb.

Gunn told Reality TV World that Monahan and Webb were "two completely different people" and felt that Monahan's status as a "real woman" will make it easier for the show's makeover subjects and home viewers to relate to her.

"Veronica Webb is a supermodel and she could break all the rules and still look absolutely fabulous," Gunn told Reality TV World. "For our subjects, the women with whom we work, Gretta has her feet planted firmly in the ground and there's a girlfriend element to Gretta that - and with Veronica it was - she was on a pedestal. It was more difficult."

Gunn and Monahan both told reporters that the marriage of the two for the show's second season had come after years of knowing each other, admiring each other's work in the field of fashion, and looking for the right project to collaborate on.

"We did know each other. We had never worked together," Gunn told reporters. "But I had been a Gretta Monahan fan ever since I first met her. We co-hosted an event and I just thought 'this is the most magnificent, fabulous person and I'd love to do something with her.' And now here we are."

"I'm just so excited to tell you what a groupie I am of Tim's," added Monahan. "And for me, you know, I think a lot of people - we all are, you know, such fans of him and obviously everything [Gunn has] done for our industry."

As for changes that viewers would see in the second season of Tim Gunn's Guide to Style, Gunn told Reality TV World that addition to the removal of the first season's awkward underwear drawer segments -- a change fully supported by Monahan -- the second season would feature a more subtle and nuanced approach to the changes to the show's subjects.

"So many women think, 'Oh if I had a figure like that, if I looked like her all my fashion foibles would be put to an end.' But in fact, that isn't true," Gunn told Reality TV World. "The fashion challenge space could be presented or can be confronted by any woman. And that's what I love about this season, that we're dealing with the woman next door and she has issues."

"It's not just the big sweeping makeovers where it's, you know, let's shock everybody with these short haircuts and crazy color. And it isn't it about that, added Monahan. "It's very accessible. It's about showing the really beautiful, you know, quality, taste and style of really applying that - those principles - how that really can make a gigantic transformation for someone internally and externally."

Gunn went on to attribute the new season's leap in "content" and "volume of education" to the presence of Monahan.

However, even with Gunn and Monahan's refined criticism style, they both teased that there would be some memorable moments of resistance by some of the show's subjects.

"If you want to see that, then just tune in," Monahan said with a laugh.

"It's a 'lulu,'" added Gunn.

While both Gunn and Monahan said that they were "beyond satisfied" with the additions to the show's new season, they admitted some apprehension to one significant change to the show: the decision to film the new season entirely in high-definition.

"I'll tell you what it presented," Monahan said of the challenges of being shot in the HDTV format. "It presented my poor - poor Tim [having] to wait on set because I have all this crazy hair and we were trying to keep it from going fuzzy."

"We - let's just say one - well two words, 'air brush.' That's what we're talking about here for HD," Monahan concluded with a laugh.

Tim Gunn's Guide to Style premieres on Thursday, October 2 at 11PM ET/PT on Bravo. Following the premiere, the show will move to its regular time slot at 10PM ET/PT on Thursday, October 16.

(Photo credit Bravo)

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